Creed of the Paladin
by Jasperhide
Summary: This is the book I am currently trying to write, and it is set in a world I created known as Kryanth. This is a work in progress, so please feel free to comment / review!
1. Chapter 1

The sky was a dull gray as the hooded figure moved into the tavern. The sun was out, but could not be seen through the clouds that lay thick over the land. The air was cool, the wind having picked up after the light showers earlier in the day. It came in from the mountains, giving the air a bit of a frigid chill; a gift from the snow covered lands to the north. The man pushed open the door to the Stomping Shield Tavern and Inn, and strode quickly inside, wanting to escape the dreariness of the day for a warm fire. He sensed something was wrong as soon as he stepped inside; there was no fire going, no noise, just silence. He scanned the room, trying to find any clues as to what was going on. It seemed to have been a fine tavern, a stone fireplace in the corner with a stage nearby to entertain guests. Tables had filled the entire middle of the tavern, chairs neatly set near them, waiting for the weary traveler to take a seat and rest. The bar rested on the right hand side of the room, which, at one point, had drinks of every sort lining the back wall, a barrel and keg on top of the bar, and glasses of every shape and size lined the top of the bar, waiting to be filled by the meticulous bar tender. The walls of the inn were covered with a plethora of items; it seemed as if there hadn't been one part of the wall that wasn't covered with a trophy or an animal head. But the scene before the man showed something entirely different. Chairs were flung about the room, most broken, others precariously leaning on the tables for dear life. The bar was an utter mess, drink and food splayed everywhere, and everything behind it shattered or broken. All the walls were covered in blood, the sticky substance clinging to the different items hanging, obscuring everything. The man stepped carefully around the wrecked tables towards the farther end of the establishment, hoping to find something to explain the ruined tavern.

He unsheathed the sword that hung in the leather bandolier on his left side, and held it ready in his right hand as he walked around. He took a few more steps towards the back and instantly the odor of death and decay greeted his nostrils. He winced a little, and turned his head to the left, noticing a door there. He silently strode to it, readying his sword. He too a deep breath as he yanked it open and backpedaled, sword at the ready. A shape came at him, and he quickly slashed his sword forward with the speed and accuracy of a seasoned warrior. The thing fell to the ground; now in two pieces after the great swing of the man's sword. He pushed it onto its back with his boot, and grunted in disgust. The thing before him looked to be a patron of the tavern, now a cold and dead corpse; its skin blue and black. Blood was caked around his abdomen, and it seemed as if his back had been scorched by fire. The man quietly shook his head and moved back to the doorway and peered inside; the smell of decaying flesh assailed him, and he saw the bodies inside, all rotting away, just thrown into the room carelessly. His instincts were telling him to get out of there; he did not want to meet the same fate as these unlucky people. He kneeled over the body he had cut in half and held his symbol of Mraknae over it, offering a quick prayer to the god of light. He got up and pulled his cloak tighter around him as he walked back to the front of the tavern so he could leave.

As he was nearing the door he heard a soft click and quickly spun around to face a dog-like coming down the stairs loading a crossbow. He sighed and shook his head as he pulled forth one of his knives and with a flick of his wrist threw it at the thing. The creature caught in the chest and fell backwards, just as it fired its weapon, sticking the bolt fast into the ceiling. The creature was known as a gnoll, a type of lycanthrope creature, looking like a mix between a man and dog. Gnolls were not a particularly smart race, but they were effective muscle for hire. They were one of the most common races on Kryanth, right up there with orcs and goblins.

_Nothing is ever easy!_ The man thought to himself as he crept up the stairs, making sure to avoid stepping on the felled gnoll. As he ascended the stairs he heard the guttural language of the gnolls wafting down. He silently cursed himself for not hearing them earlier when he came in.

_I'm getting to old for this kind of thing!_ He thought as he tried to listen to the conversation upstairs. The man was able to speak some gnollish, enough to be able to understand the gnolls and they him.

"No! We are moving to the next town as we planned earlier! You know as well as I do that Koingr is unfit to lead us!" He heard one gnoll yell at the other.

"No! We should stay here as our leader commands!" Barked another one of the gnolls.

It was then that the man heard the footsteps coming his way; he quickly drew forth the buckler off his back. He rushed up the stairs and turned just in time to parry a glancing blow from the gnoll. He quickly backpedaled and slashed with his sword, the gnoll ducked under it and rolled towards him. The man proceeded to bash his shield into the oncoming gnoll, stunning it for a few seconds; it was a few more than he needed. The man slashed low with his sword, striking the gnoll across its stomach, spilling its life blood on the floor. It writhed there on the ground for a few seconds before finally taking its last breath. The man waited a moment, and heard the gnolls still arguing in one of the rooms on the right and breathed a sigh of relief. He quietly snuck up to the door and took a deep breath as he sent a quick prayer to Mraknae. He kicked the door open and threw his shield up in front of his face as he charged into the room.

He stopped in the middle of the room and did a complete spin, sword flashing to his side, making him look like a whirlwind of steel. His quick slashes caught a few of the gnolls off guard, and they were wounded, grasping their injuries trying to stem the blood flow. He turned to see two gnolls come at him. He put his shield out in front of him and threw all his weight forward and bowled the gnolls over and onto the ground. He fell on top of them and quickly slashed with all his strength to kill one of them. The other wiggled out of the brawl and brought its spear out to face the oncoming warrior. The man flashed a devious smile as he quickly sent another one of his throwing knives at the creature's head; the thing was dead before it hit the ground.

He turned to find two last gnolls standing in front of him, both wearing grimaces on their doggish faces, as they brandished their weapons; one was stupid enough to charge him. The gnoll thrusted its spear towards him as he moved to the right, the blow missing completely. The gnoll tried the same move once more; The man shot his sword forward and whipped it to the left, banging the spear which in turn knocked it out of the hands of his opponent. The gnoll stood there wide eyed as the man strode forwards and deftly stabbed his sword into its throat. The one remaining gnoll seemed to pale, but stood its ground anyway. The man strode up to it and knocked its crude sword out of the way and held it against the wall with his shield. He shoved his sword into the gnoll's face as it whimpered.

"I'm only going to say this once so listen up you miserable runt," the man snarled into its ear in his rudimentary form of the gnollish tongue. "You are going to go to your commander, this Koingr, and tell him that he should be wary of who he makes enemies with. Be sure to tell him that Paladin Del'Margaux will be watching him closely!" The gnoll quickly nodded its head and the man let it go. It quickly scampered off to its commander. He couldn't help but chuckle; how he loved to make these miserable creatures fear him! There was no other creature besides gnolls he enjoyed freeing the land of more. Well, there were always shades…

The man shook his head and replaced his shield onto his back as he went back down the stairs to the main floor of the tavern. He turned one more glance towards the back of the inn where he had found the bodies. _May Mraknae have mercy on their souls!_ He silently prayed as he went out the door. He found his mount grazing nearby and whistled for him to come. The horse, who had been christened Brenar, came trotting over immediately after hearing its master call it. The man smiled and affectionately patted Brenar's back as he whispered into his ear:

"Brenar, I need you to follow that fleeing gnoll, can you do that for me?" The horse whinnied and immediately started after the running gnoll.

_Yes,_ the man thought, _I believe this Koingr and his followers will be nonexistent by midday tomorrow._

And with that thought Paladin Evarius Del'Margaux rode off in pursuit of the wayward gnoll, who was too frightened to realize he was leading his enemy straight to his commanders.


	2. Chapter 2

Evarius followed the fleeing gnoll to an abandoned farm house on the outskirts of the town. He quietly led Brenar towards the far side of the farm as he watched the gnoll dash through the entrance barking in his native tongue at whoever was there to listen. Evarius smiles as he thought of the look on the gnoll's face when he had cornered him. Chuckling slightly, Evarius dismounted Brenar and stealthily crept towards the farm's entrance. He peered around the side and saw two gnolls standing guard. He pulled his cloak further over himself to hide most of his armor, and staggered forward into the gnoll's line of sight.

"He….hey you two," Evarius slurred. "Could you guys point me to the Davis's? I was supposen' to meets 'em for a meal, but cant seem to finds thems!" Evarius let himself have a small smile as he watched the gnolls grin at one another and advance for him, mistaking the paladin for a common drunk. Evarius pretended to stumble forward towards the pair, but instead pulled out twin daggers from the sheathes on his boots, and slammed them into the chest of either gnoll. The creatures stared with unblinking eyes at the paladin as they slumped to the ground. Evarius quickly retrieved his blades and moved into the farm before the guards were missed.

As the paladin entered the farm he sensed the overwhelming presence of darkness. It felt like a perversion of nature, the air just felt….wrong. There were few types of creatures on Kryanth who could create that kind of scourge, but there was only one that could attract the likes of the brutish gnolls to its side;

"A_ Shade?"_ muttered Evarius, "I could have sworn Gregor had been the last in the region!"

Shades were the embodiment of blight in the land of Kryanth, and were the sworn enemy of all Paladins of Mraknae. Shades were unlike any other creature on Kryanth in the fact that they could shape-shift with a mere thought. They could appear as whatever they chose, whether it be a human, elf, or shadow. Most shades stuck to the Nether region, the darkest part of the world, where their power was at its greatest in the pit of darkness. However, there were some who traveled the world, hoping to gain power and rule. Shades were notorious for their ambitions for power. The only way to kill a Shade is by taking its head with a weapon blessed by Mraknae; which, as a paladin, Evarius always carried with him. Evarius had slain He thought about using his long sword and shield, but instead took the double-headed war axe off his back and hefted it in his hands. The giant axe was a formidable weapon called _Americk_,__meaning 'Cleaver' in the elfish tongue. It was an enchanted weapon, known to be able to cut nigh anything. Evarius had fought many battles with the axe, and most of them against shades. He investigated the scene further, feeling more comfortable with _Americk_ in his hands.

Evarius crept through the farm, moving as quietly as possible, hoping the enemy wouldn't hear him. He crouched down in front of a hay bale as he heard guttural sounds in front of him. He peered over the hay bale and saw gnolls, surrounding a table with papers scattered around, possibly a map lying in the center. The gnolls were all clustered around a bigger gnoll, or at least something that looked like a gnoll. The larger gnoll was two heads taller than the rest and had glyphs tattooed over his body, the most striking of the glyphs were two star shapes over the creature's eyes; the mark of the shade. Apparently this 'Koingr' was a shade disguised as a gnoll, leading the rest to do its bidding; typical tactics for a shade. Evarius strained to hear the conversation between the shade and his followers.

"As you can see Commander, our forces are stationed here in the caverns near Stoneport, and more are coming in from The Far Reaches as we speak." explained one of the gnolls.

"Excellent, things are going as planned now we…" Koingr stopped mid-sentence as the gnoll that had led Evarius to the farm burst into the meeting area.

"My liege! We have a problem at our base in the town!" blurted the gnoll as he reached the table. "Our contingency stationed in the tavern was wiped out!"

Koingr snorted in contempt, "And I should care? What is a dozen gnolls to an army?" he went back to studying the maps.

"But sir, it was a disciple of Mraknae who murdered our brothers!" At this statement, Koingr's head shot up and his eyes widened. 

"A Paladin of Valor? Here!? That is unacceptable! Tell me what happened, this instance!"

Evarius had heard enough; he couldn't let this shade continue his plans. He tightened his grip on _Americk _away from the hay bale, ready to make his move. And that was when a guard passing by noticed him crouched there. The gnoll then proceeded to get behind him and slam the paladin's head with his club. Evarius's head swam as he fell to the ground. Koingr's voice drifted through his mind.

"Well, what do we have here? The Paladin delivered himself to us! What a prize indeed!" He heard Koingr gloating as the transformed shade stood over him.

"Damn…" muttered Evarius as he drifted off into unconsciousness, the blackness taking blissful control over his mind as he fell asleep.

* * *

Evarius awoke with a splitting headache, his skull bursting with pain as he blinked away the stars that continued to swim in his vision. When he was coherent enough to see his surroundings, he had to shut his eyes once more from the brightness of the sun, shining all around him. When his eyes were able to look past the glare of the sun, he could see that he was chained to a tree outside the town. Evarius strained his muscles against the chains to no avail; they were made of adamantium, there was no way in the Nether he was going to break through them.

"Ahh I see you have awoken my pet, I am truly surprised though that a warrior of your standing was captured so easily!" Came a voice close to Evarius's right. "I had hoped for more sport from you. Oh well, I suppose this will have to suffice!" Koingr stepped around the tree to face the captured paladin. The Shade had reverted to a different form, one of moving shadow. It had the shape of a human, but there was no defining features about it. All the form had was shadowy tendrils surrounding it, each glowing with the dark power of the Nether.

"And what is it the great and mighty Koingr wants with a lowly paladin like myself?" came the sarcastic reply from the Evarius.

"Ah well to begin I want to know why a pawn of the Wardens is here meddling in my affairs. I had thought for sure there were no reported warriors of light in the area."

"I was passing through, and happened to stumble upon you after a trek through Fiern's Woods, where I killed Gregor." At this statement the Shade's eyes narrowed. "Oh sorry, did I touch a nerve there?"

"You will hold your insolent tongue foolish mortal! Gregor was one of the most powerful Shades known on Kryanth, how _you_ managed to slay him I shall never know. The fact that my brother was unable to crush you with a mere thought is a mystery even to our divinations. However, I do not wish to speak of that, I wish to learn more of you my pet, and how I can convince you to…..part with your faith in the light. I could always use a Shadowknight in my ranks…" the arrogant shade left the unfinished thought at that. A Shadowknight was a forsaken Paladin who has given into the darker side of the gods, worshiping Ghorem, the god of blight, in the stead of Mraknae. While Paladins worshipped the light, and invoked healing spells, Shadowknights prayed to the dark and invoked spells of pestilence and disease. They gained their powers through Shade given magic as well as divine magic from Ghorem, they were the most hunted individuals by Paladins. A single Shadowknight could level a town if they were in favor with their gods.

Evarius smirked at his captor, "You know quite well I would never do that, so do your worst to me foul Shade, for I would die willingly in the cause of good."

Now it was Koingr's turn to smirk and shake his head, "You are a fool human, I offer you power and yet you decline, instead willing to believe in your 'god.' Well where is your god now paladin? While you are being chained to a tree and about to die, where is your god to save you? No, you are a food human, and you shall die slowly!" Koingr pulled a curved blade from behind him and advanced on the bound Evarius; the paladin knew his time had come. He closed his eyes and started a prayer to Mraknae, losing himself in the words of the hymn.

As the Shade approached, a whizzing sound broke through the silence and the curved blade was wrenched from Koingr's hand. The Shade whipped his head to the side, not able to see the intruder. Evarius opened his eyes and scanned the forest, unable to see the assailant either. As both captor and prisoner were looking for the unseen archer, three more arrows show towards the Shade, all striking the mass of shadows. Koingr shrieked in pain as the arrows stuck into him, and Evarius noticed the arrows were dripping with a liquid.

_Blessed water!_ thought the paladin, _it seems I have a capable ally around. Thank you Mraknae!_

As Evarius continued to look at the forest he noticed a rustle in the big oak tree a few feet away, and so did Koingr. The Shade advanced towards the tree, and was met by more arrows that landed with loud _thuds_ into his chest. The Shade screeched once more and bounded away, moving as quick as it could away from those cursed holy arrows!

Once Koingr had fled, Evarius's unseen ally appeared out of the nearby brush. The figure approached the chained paladin, wearing a suit of chain armor favored by the elves, evident by the leaf-like designs etched around the mail. The figure pulled back its green cloak to reveal a woman who beauty was breath taking. Her hair was the color of red flame, cut short around her pointed ears. Her eyes were slightly slanted like an elves, and were the color of the forest, green and luxurious…..enticing even. Her skin seemed to glow with a steady light, as if she had swallowed a star. Evarius noticed a lute on her belt and a harp slung over one shoulder.The half elf moved with the grace of any elf, but with the sureness of a human. She moved quickly to Evarius and cut his bonds with a jeweled dirk, the pommel embedded with a round ruby.

_A bard._ mused the paladin, _aren't many of them around these days_.

"Quickly, you must move. The Shade will alert his guards to me soon, and you won't have much time to escape this accursed place." said the beautiful half elf, "I can lead you out of here and in the general direction of the nearest town, but you must heed my every command." Evarius nodded his consent at her words. "Very well, now follow, quickly!"

"What about my armor and weapons? I cannot leave my equipment and my horse behind!"

The woman smiled "I have already herded your horse into the forest, away from the gnolls and he is carrying your equipment, so fear not paladin, you are in good hands."

Evarius flashed her a smile in return and continued after her into the forest. They traveled for a about half of an hour before Evarius heard the familiar sound of Brenar's neighing. He ran up to greet his friend, and scratched his head vigorously. "Good boy!" He cooed over and over.

Evarius turned back to the woman, who was standing by the forest's edge, smiling at him.

"I would thank you my friend, but I fear you never told me your name." The paladin said as he grinned at his savior.

"I am known as Cliona, and no thanks are needed Sir Paladin, consider it a debt paid. Now I must be on my way, maybe one day we will meet again." And with that, Cliona, the half elf bard was gone from sight, flitting from tree to tree, as invisible as the wind. Evarius shook his head and chuckled as he strapped on his armor and weapons and mounted his horse.

"A strange one she is, and what did she mean by a debt paid?" Evarius mused aloud as he started Brenar in a westerly direction towards the city Cythen, to report his findings to the Wardens, and warn them of this Koingr. The paladin couldn't help but think of the days events as the sky grew darker and the wind picked up a few hours later. He quickly steered Brenar towards the edge of the road and made camp for the night. As Evarius slept that evening, his dreams were filled with images of the forest, the white light of his god, and the alluring half elf named Cliona.


End file.
